Setting up software defined radio in debian...

...is more challenging than I originally expected.

The most helpful site I can find is this one:
http://2h2o.tumblr.com/

Many of my questions were answered with this post:
https://forums.hak5.org/index.php?/topic/31717-got-my-sdr-kit-now-what/page-1

but alas it would appear that the gnuradio script takes care of much of the former:

$ wget http://www.sbrac.org/files/build-gnuradio && chmod a+x ./build-gnuradio && ./build-gnuradio

*I did have to update the build script to include 7.5 for it to run.

to enable or disable autologon in linux

run the following command and flag "#" or unflag where needed:

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

alfa awus036h keeps dropping connection and then reconnects only to drop again

open the following file (with admin privileges):
/etc/rc.local


add these lines (before exit command):
sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 5.5M fixed
sudo iwconfig wlan0 frag 2346
sudo iwconfig wlan0 rts 2347

I plugged my Linux box into the tv

And I didn't have any sound coming through the HDMI cable. I am currently using Lubuntu and everything else worked perfectly. The problem was I wasn't using the Nvidia drivers. I was seriously hoping to avoid using the Nvidia drivers since it doesn't play well with Lubuntu. All my text ends up super small. Therefore I switched to Ubuntu. 

To get sound over HDMI I had to install pavucontrol:

sudo apt-get install pavucontrol

Then select HDMI as the output.

However my login screen still says Lubuntu. To change it to Ubuntu I issued the following command:

sudo update-alternatives - - config default.plymouth 

And selected the Ubuntu option. The to make the changes permanent issue the following command 

sudo update-initramfs -u

Now logging in says Ubuntu :-) 

Kindle Fire vs Nexus 7: Which is the better ereader?

First and foremost I like to read. When ereaders first came out there were quite a few studies indicating that people read faster when reading an actual book. This may be true. However I have found that I read a lot more when using an ereader. I specifically use the term ereader here instead of electronic device since I do not enjoy reading on a computer (this includes laptops, netbooks and ultrabooks). More specifically my reading list includes at least 5 dissertations (1000+ pages) in the last couple of months. If I had 15 minutes to spare I would pick of the ereader instead of the actual dissertation and edit as many pages as I could in the time allotted. With the paper copy I would wait for a sufficient chunk of time where I could knock out an entire chapter, which is typically "never". I even used an ereader to catch up on the 300+ journal articles that I wanted to "read later". Even journal articles that I review get done at a faster pace when using an ereader.

Most of the aforementioned reading and editing was done on my Kindle Fire. Consequently, I was really excited to when the Nexus 7. With the Nexus 7 I could ssh into my VPS, skype, install my favorite keyboard for sending emails on a a tablet, utilize all of my Google apps and still use it as an ereader. Personally I feel that the Nexus 7 is the "do it all tablet".

So which device do I use to read now? Answer... the Kindle Fire. Why? Because given the opportunity to do the aforementioned list, the Nexus 7 lets me do exactly that. Especially when I think of things to do while I am reading. Since I can't do those things on the Kindle Fire I get a lot more reading done with it:)

CAC

This is a helpful tool for setting up CAC access in linux.  Here is what I could find on it:

pcsc_tools

he pcsc_tools package provides an especially handy utility, pcsc_scan, which can help verify that your CAC reader really is talking to the OS, regardless of what any application is telling you:

$ pcsc_scan

The original way to install DoD root certificates, even on Windows XP, was to visit http://dodpki.c3pki.chamb.disa.mil/rootca.html and just click on each one to install.

Firefox Client Certificate Setup

1. Insert CAC into reader - the green light should flash.
   
2. Add CAC Module to Firefox as a Security Device
   1. Preferences Menu
   2. Advanced Section
   3. Encryption Tab
   4. Security Devices Button
   5. Load Button
   6. Enter CAC Module as the module name, and browse to /usr/lib/pkcs11/libcoolkeypk11.so for the module filename (or /usr/bin/libcackey.so or /usr/lib/libcackey.so if using the CACKey custom PKCS#11 library available from cackey).

How to Build a Computer from Scratch: The Complete Guide [Video]

How to Build a Computer from Scratch: The Complete Guide [Video]:

Last week, we showed you how to build your own custom PC, from picking the parts, to putting it together and installing your OS. Here's the complete guide, along with a printable PDF version that you can use as a reference. More »

Connect to a network from the command line

iwlist wlan0 scan | grep 'ESSID\|Encryption\|WPA'
wpa_passphrase ssid password
wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan0 -c ssid"

What Kind of Maintenance Do I Need to Do On My Linux PC? [Ask Lifehacker]

What Kind of Maintenance Do I Need to Do On My Linux PC? [Ask Lifehacker]:

Dear Lifehacker,
You've gone through Windows and Mac maintenance, but what about Linux users? I'm pretty new to Linux, and I'm familiar with Windows maintenance, but don't know if the same rules apply. What do I need to do to maintain an Ubuntu system? More »

Embed a TrueCrypt Volume In A Playable Video File [Security]

Embed a TrueCrypt Volume In A Playable Video File [Security]:

Steganography is the process of hiding an encrypted message in some otherwise innocent looking format. We've gone over some ways to do this in the past with image files, but now you can take it to a whole new level by hiding an entire TrueCrypt volume in an mp4 video file. More »

How to Quickly Find and Replace Text Across Multiple Files with One Command

If you need to find and replace the occurrence of a word, phrase, URL, or whatever, and it’s in several documents, this can be a really tedious task. If you’re running Mac OS X, Linux, or really any Unix-based operating system, you can use the command line to save you a lot of time and effort.

All you really need is this simple command:

perl -pi -w -e 's/SEARCH_FOR/REPLACE_WITH/g;' *.txt

The search string is what you need to alter. You want to replace SEARCH_FOR with the text you’re searching for and REPLACE_WITH with the text you want to use as a replacement. You’ll also want to change *.txt if you’re working with HTML files (or another type of text file). This command also assumes you’re in the directory you want, so you’ll also need to use cd to change to the directory you want or will have to specify the full path. For example:

perl -pi -w -e 's/stupid/awesome/g;' ~/Desktop/*.txt

The above command will replace all occurrences of “stupid” with “awesome” found in any .txt files on the desktop. Pretty neat!

promiscuous mode

promiscuous mode or Monitor mode

alfa AWUS 036H has Realtek RTL8187 chipset

to find chipset in linux use command: lsusb

to set to monitor mode use command: airmon-ng start wlan0

airodump-ng mon0

Getting Started with Linux: The Complete Guide [Night School]

Getting Started with Linux: The Complete Guide [Night School]:

If you've been meaning to try out Linux but felt too overwhelmed, we've got all the info you need to get started. Here are our five lessons on getting a working Linux partition up and running. More »

Canonical’s New Component Catalog Makes Building a Linux-Friendly PC Easy

For those who want to build their own linux box check out the following:


Building a PC is great, but Linux users have always had to do the extra legwork of finding out which components were Linux-friendly. Now, Ubuntu developers Canonical have released a comprehensive list of hardware certified to work with Linux.
 

http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/catalog

EXIFTool

This is tool is very helpful for when you want to post images on the web:


Linux users can use a tool called EXIFTool (which is available for Windows and OS X too, but is a command line tool, so we opted for the easier alternatives above). You can install it on Ubuntu by running the command:

 sudo apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl

Then, to clean your photos, just cd to the their folder and run:

 exiftool -all= *.jpg

It will make copies of all your photos for you, adding _original to the end of the original photos (with the personal information still intact).
There are a lot of other programs out there, but these are some of the easeist ways to delete any personal information that may be lingering in your photos. Keep in mind you’ll still need to do manual photo editing if your address or phone number is in the shot itself—this only removes data from the file on your computer, not the visible picture.

Chome: about

About:DNS 

About:Cache 

About:Plugins

About:Memory

About:Crash

Audit Tabs 

Just hit Shift+Esc to open up Chrome’s built-in Task Manager to see how much memory and CPU cycles each tab is consuming.

Mount Shared Folder

sudo mount.vboxsf Shared ~/Shared -o rw,exec,uid=1000,gid=1000,dev

Printing in linux

apt install cups hplip system-config-printer-gnome

Remastersys

The Setup

   1. You need to tell Ubuntu where to find the packages. In the terminal use this command to open the source list.

          sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

   2. Then insert this line at the end of the file that pops up if you have Lucid 10.04. For other distros go here to find the correct repository.

          deb [www.geekconnection.org] karmic/

   3. SAVE THAT FILE THEN update your sources like so..

          sudo apt-get update

   4. Install Remastersys like so

          sudo apt-get install remastersys

   5. Type in this to see the different commands available to you

          sudo remastersys

   6. Now to create a bootable .iso file you can use this command. (“custom” can be anything you want).RESULTING .ISO FILE IS LOCATED IN home/remastersys/

          sudo remastersys backup custom.iso

   7. Move the .iso file to a safe directory then clean out your remaster directory like so.

          sudo remastersys clean

Take Heed

    * Don’t use if you have personal information and passwords saved into your internet browser. It copies EVERYTHING!

    * Clean out your browser cache and use sudo apt-get clean to remove unused packages.

Interesting Linux Programs

wipe: It is a secure file wiping utility 

shred: Delete a file securely, first overwriting it to hide its contents. 

autokey:  text replacement tool

blat:  Send emails from the command line

wget:  download files from the command line
 

tcpdump: a powerful command-line packet analyzer

ngrep:  strives to provide most of GNU grep's common features, applying them to the network layer. ngrep is a pcap-aware tool that will allow you to specify extended regular or hexadecimal expressions to match against data payloads of packets. It currently recognizes IPv4/6, TCP, UDP, ICMPv4/6, IGMP and Raw across Ethernet, PPP, SLIP, FDDI, Token Ring and null interfaces, and understands BPF filter logic in the same fashion as more common packet sniffing tools, such as tcpdump and snoop.

Snippits: This is Ruby program that will type text for you. It uses 'snippits', small text files with a simple syntax to determine what to type

dmidecode: Typing sudo dmidecode into a terminal will give you a giant list of information about your machine that you can browse through, or you can use the -s flag and a keyword to get a specific piece of information.

MTR:

MTR isn’t your father’s Traceroute. It’s the ultimate command line tool for finding out where those tasty little packets are getting lost. From bash issue mtr –report-wide –curses and your destination of choice.

mtr –report-wide –curses 8.8.8.8

MTR will bring up a curses terminal interface with a constantly updating report on hops and pings, complete with hostname, best and average latency, and percentage of packets lost at each link.